Anti-government rioting spreads in Cameroon
YAOUNDE, Cameroon — Anti-government riots
paralyzed the Cameroon capital and main port on Wednesday as popular anger
exploded over high fuel and food prices and a bid by President Paul Biya to
extend his 25-year rule.
Local journalists said one protester
was killed by armed police on Wednesday in the southwest town of Buea. The
unrest - the worst in over 15 years in this central African oil producing
nation - has killed at least seven people since it broke out at the weekend in
the port of Douala, a major African shipping hub.
There were unconfirmed reports of
several more deaths on Wednesday but no reliable total was immediately
available. Local journalists said Cameroonian authorities were instructing
state media and hospital staff not to publicize deaths.
The rioting spread on Wednesday to the
capital Yaounde after sweeping through western towns in the last four days.
Riot police fired tear gas at
protesters in both cities, sometimes using helicopters to drop gas canisters
from the air.
State radio appealed for calm, saying
the government had agreed with union leaders to make cuts in gasoline and fuel
prices, one of the key demands of the protesters. But people expressed outrage
at the small size of the reductions.
In Yaounde, bands of stone-throwing
youths blocked streets with barricades of burning tires and timber. Businesses
and shops closed and parents rushed to fetch their children from schools. Some
vehicles were smashed and torched.
Some protesters chanted slogans against
Biya, whose announcement last month that he might seek changes in the
constitution to prolong his mandate has angered many opposition supporters.
"Biya has gone too far, he must go," shouted one demonstrator in
Yaounde.
Others chanted: "We're fed
up."
In the commercial capital of Douala, a
police helicopter dropped tear gas on hundreds of protesters who marched to
demand bigger cuts in fuel and food prices. As the marchers scattered in panic
on Wouri Bridge, some fell into the river.
Witnesses saw police arrest dozens of
protesters, taking them away in trucks. Some were beaten with rifle butts, the
witnesses said. Anti-government protests were also reported in Bamenda in the
northwest.
Cameroon is the world's fourth largest
cocoa producer; no details were immediately available on disruption to
shipments.
Cameroon's government and union leaders
reached an agreement late on Tuesday to end a taxi drivers' strike which had
triggered the rioting and widespread looting in Douala - a hotbed of opposition
to Biya - and other towns.
The government agreed to cut the price
of a liter of gasoline to 594 CFA francs, or about $1.36, from 600. Similar
small reductions were agreed for other fuel products like kerosene.
The riots followed similar protests
against the high cost of living in other West African countries after soaring
oil prices pushed up prices for energy products and basic foodstuffs.
Biya announced eight weeks ago that he
might change the constitution to stay in power when his term ends in 2011.
Critics say Biya, 75, could use his party's majority in Parliament to make the
constitutional modifications.
The U.S. embassy in Cameroon advised
its citizens to avoid travel in the country. "Roadblocks have been erected
without notice by both demonstrators and petty criminals on many of the major
thoroughfares of Cameroon," it said in a message posted on the embassy Web
site.
"Food, fuel and water are
increasingly scarce, not only in Douala but in other cities where expectation
of shortage has sparked a run on gasoline," it added.